The Removal Chain & Sentient Life Cycles

Abstract

As our cities are growing, managing waste is becoming increasingly challenging. Global plastic waste is set to almost triple by 2060 (OECD Citation2020) while recycling rates are staying below expectations.

At the same time, landfills are being relocated away from cities, reaching their maximum capacities, or forced to shut down due to contamination with hazardous materials. As waste management infrastructure is increasingly removed from urban areas, we are becoming further disconnected from its ubiquitous, indispensable, yet invisible life of its own.

In recent years, supply chain issues have been an omnipresent reflection of our consumerist reality. For example, when the Ever Given—one of the largest container ships in the world—got stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021 (Chellel et al. Citation2021), we were reminded that our globalized goods travel a long way around the world before they arrive at our doorstep. Still, we tend to forget that there is a life after the supply. On a planet with finite resources and growing piles of (hazardous) trash, we need to look further than the obvious. We urgently need to embrace a circular economy to combat the climate crisis. And to do so, we need to mind both the supply and removal chains.